Crossfire
by FeathersMcStrange
Summary: AKA that time I decided to write a College AU. Mike Ross is sixteen and brilliant. High school has given him all it has to offer, and now he sits in the office of the university he is about to start at. Harvey Specter is twenty three and on his way to the top. Arrogant as all hell & also the Dean's office, about to receive unwelcome news. It all just goes downhill from there. Gen.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello hello hello there! I bring you my obligatory college AU fic. I feel like writing a college AU is like some sort of rite of passage or whatever. This is an important day in my life. I think I need a moment to savor the feeling.**

**(Actually a collaboration with my dear friend Lizzie)**

**Anyway, a bit of necessary background before we jump in (also an apology for the lame opening chapter, I swear it will get better):**

**I did screw with the ages a bunch. Eheh. Ah well. Whatever works. **

_Harvey - 23_

_Mike - 16_

**Hope you'll enjoy this one, guys! Drop me a review, tell me how I'm doing!**

**(not a romance, btw, if that's what you're looking for)**

* * *

_So, Harvey's father died two years ago as of now, when he was finishing his junior year of college. He dropped out and got a job in order to care for his little brother Lachlann Specter. (Their mother, who walked out with the man she was having an affair with when Harvey was ten, was an Irish lounge singer. The name is Irish Gaelic.) Jessica Pearson, head of student affairs (a job which I totally made up, along with the school) went to the coffee shop he worked at every morning, and got to know him. A contract was drawn up involving her sister's law firm, one thing led to another, and now he's a senior at her school, bound for law school, then a position at the aforementioned sister's firm. Other characters will appear as necessary._

* * *

"It's highly unorthodox, but I have reviewed the case and come to a decision."

That's what Dean of Student Affairs, Jessica Pearson, had said, the day he sat across her desk from her in an overstuffed leather armchair, watching her nervously as she juggled his future from hand to hand. Thankfully his feet touched the ground, though just barely, so he wasn't left swinging his legs above the floor like the chastised child he so felt like at the moment. Beside him, an elderly woman squared her shoulders. She looked at him and smiled thinly.

"And your decision was?" Edith asked. The boy sitting next to her was impressed with the way his grandmother spoke. He was sure that if he had tried to address the imposing woman sitting before them, his voice would have cracked and shook embarrassingly.

"Well, as I said when you first came to talk to me regarding Michael-"

"Mike."

Jessica was thoughtfully silent for a moment, her stare making Mike, who had just spoken for the first time since they arrived, feel like if there was ever a moment for a gaping hole to open in the floor and swallow him, now would be a pretty good time. Jessica Pearson was the kind of person who gave the impression that she was constantly evaluating you for a position you hadn't known you had applied for and weren't entirely sure you wanted, and as such was endlessly intimidating. She nodded once, her face completely blank. Mike thought absently and unrelatedly that he would hate to play cards with her. Jessica had one hell of a poker face.

"Of course. Anyway, as I said when you first came to me about your grandson, this is a very special set of circumstances. Universities rarely admit students his age, and ours even less than average. However his scores and recommendations speak for themselves. I have no doubt that Mike would do well here, and as he has exceeded the level of work that high school is capable of providing, I'd be happy to admit him here."

Mike felt a flood of relief rush through him. He grinned widely at her, then at Edith.

"Of course," Jessica added with just a hint of a smile. "Given his age, I wouldn't be comfortable placing him in one of our upperclassman dorms with that many older students, and our underclassman dorms are at capacity. That leaves our options limited, but I do have a rather... Unusual solution to our housing problem, if you're willing to consider it. I'd have to talk to someone about it first, but I think it should work out. I'll contact you when I have a concrete answer, and we can have this all settled by the beginning of the term."

Truthfully, the last thing Mike wanted was to consider whatever her 'unusual solution' to their 'housing problem' was. He quite liked living with his grandmother, thank you very much. But Edith was getting old and, though he was loathe to admit it even in his own head, he knew her mind was slipping. She had made the decision after her third fall in a month that she would be checking into an assisted living home as soon as they figured out where Mike was going to school. Neither of them liked the idea, but they knew it was the way it had to be.

"Thank you, Miss Pearson." Edith and Mike both shook the woman's hand and then left the office, brushing past a well dressed young man standing in the waiting room outside. It was for the best that they got out of earshot quickly, as the ensuing conversation between the person in the waiting room and Jessica got very heated, very quickly.

* * *

"You want me to _what?_" demanded the twenty three year old senior, expression full of disbelief.

"You need the extra money and I need a place to put this kid. You have a spare room, I have a spare freshman. The solution presents itself."

Harvey Specter was top of his class, set up to become the most brilliant lawyer in the state, raising his teenage brother the best he could with one parent dead and the other MIA, and vehemently opposed to every word that had come out of Jessica's mouth in the past five minutes.

"Let me see if I understand you here," he said slowly. "You expect me to lease my spare room out to some sixteen year old rich kid who's mommy and daddy don't want to put up with him and decided to send him to college three years early? I'm not a babysitter, Jessica, and I'm at capacity for teenagers in my life at the moment."

Jessica regarded him coolly and came out from behind her desk, standing face to face with Harvey and silently reminding him that she was both two inches taller and far more powerful than he was.

"Since you won't respond to reason, let me put it this way. I own you. I pulled you out of that coffee shop, I got you back in school, I control whether or not you stay here. And both you and I know you _will_ stay here. So you are going to clean out that spare room, and the boy will be there next week. He doesn't have to be 'in your life' beyond being your roommate. I'm sure it will work out fine." She smiled at him, and it was made of ice. "Remember our deal, Harvey. Have a nice day."

The woman's eyes followed him as he left, her face softening as the boy she was watching fast grow into a man turned away from her. He had a lot of work to do, and he somehow still didn't understand that everything she did was for his own good. Jessica folded her arms and shook her head softly. Harvey Specter. What ever was she going to do with him. He was a brilliant young man, but he was also _impossible_ to deal with, arrogant and entitled. That was, contrary to what appeared to be popular opinion, not a good trait in a lawyer. He was cocky, and that needed to be fixed.

Who knew.

Dealing with the Ross kid might teach him something.


	2. Chapter 2

**So this is… Late. And I thoroughly apologize for it. I got… distracted and did what I usually do, which is procrastinate and do absolutely nothing while beating myself up for being able to not write a single word, on any of the fics I've got going or my novel. Ah well. Such is the life of a writer, isn't it? And yeah, the stress about school soon isn't helping much either. So you'll bear with me if these updates, which I shall try to get out once a week (I've picked Thursday as the day now), sometimes will end up being a couple days late. (Hopefully not this late, but whatever.)**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and I hope you'll continue to share your thoughts with me!**

**- Alison**

* * *

When Harvey got home that afternoon, Lachlann was sitting at the kitchen table, doing one of the jigsaw puzzles he was so fond of. He stood in the doorway and watched the boy study the pieces in front of him intently, trying to figure out where the next one fit. He would find the kid there often, staring at one of his puzzles, a mug of coffee or tea or hot chocolate steaming next to him. He didn't look like a fifteen year old who argued with his brother about letting him get a job to help keep them going, he didn't look like someone who'd lost their parents before they started high school.

Eventually he decided he'd waited long enough and breaking Lachlann's concentration - his peace - was pretty much unavoidable. Harvey coughed lightly.

Lachlann started abruptly, dropping the purple and green piece of jaggedly sectioned cardboard in his hand.

"Jesus, Harvey!" he huffed, turning startled eyes towards the young man leaning against the doorframe. "Make a little noise next time!"

Harvey couldn't help grinning at his brother, sitting down across from him at the table, hanging his suit jacket over the back of the chair and loosening his tie. He always liked to look as professional as possible when he knew he would be interacting with Jessica. She was, after all, the person in charge of his entire future. The memory of his meeting with her caused the grin to fade as he remembered the news he had to deliver.

"So, I saw Jessica today," Harvey said casually, trying to ease into the subject of their soon to come unwanted house guest.

"Yeah? What did she want?" Lachlann asked, bending down and swiping the piece from where it had fallen. He seemed unconcerned with whatever it was Jessica had wished to speak with him about. Harvey honestly wasn't sure how the kid was going to react to this.

"She wants our spare room."

That got Lachlann's attention fully.

"She wants our _spare room?_ Because? She lose interest in wherever it is she currently vacations at? Wants to spend some time seeing how the other half lives?"

His older brother rolled his eyes fondly, sighing and leaning back farther in the chair.

"She wants to lease it," Harvey said, a statement which unleashed a string of rapid fire questions from the suddenly very interested boy.

"Oh? To who? Anybody I know? Why? When? To who?"

Harvey snorted. "Slow down, Kid Flash. No, you don't know him, and neither do I. Some new student she has nowhere to put, apparently. Probably a spoiled kid whose parents are done putting up with him. And now we have to. But we could use the extra money, so-"

"Hang on," Lachlann interrupted. "'Kid'? How old is he, Harvey?"

"Well..." Harvey hedged. "He's a freshman, but he's... Accelerated. He's sixteen."

Lachlann blinked in surprise. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

"Well hopefully he won't be too bad," the teenager reasoned in an expressionless tone, looking back down at his puzzle. "I mean, he's gotta be pretty smart if he's only sixteen and starting college. Did Jessica say why she wasn't just putting him in the dorm? I mean, it'd suck to have to live in one of those when you're technically not even old enough to be in college. But still. Why us?"

"_Jessica_ decided that placing him with us was the best course of action. Apparently," Harvey ground out, very obviously not buying a word of what he was saying, "the underclassman dorms are full up and there was absolutely nowhere else they could possibly have put him."

"But you don't believe that," Lachlann said, still in the same forcedly disinterested voice.

Harvey raised an eyebrow at him.

"I don't?"

"Come on Harv, I'm fifteen not an idiot. And it doesn't take a lawyer, or a law student, to read _that_ tone. So you don't believe what Jessica told you, and I wanna know why."

Finding that he couldn't really argue with that (Lachlann would make a damn good lawyer some day, would _have_, had he not known full well that the boy's interests lay more in creative writing than in law) Harvey nodded and looked at the puzzle, picking up a piece and studying it before putting it carefully in it's place.

"I think Jessica thinks she's teaching me some sort of lesson in humility, in following orders. She likes to do that sometimes. I signed that contract with her sister's firm, and now she thinks she can make me do whatever she wants."

"Technically she can," Lachlann reminded him, taking the next piece right out of Harvey's fingers and fitting it in neatly. "And she thinks making us live with some random guy we don't even know is going to _teach you a lesson_?"

"I don't pretend to know how Jessica Pearson's mind works," Harvey scoffed.

Lachlann shrugged, opting not to respond to that, instead resting his chin on his jacket covered forearms. The Warner Atlantic hoodie he was so fond of wearing all the time was about three sizes too big, as it had originally belonged to Harvey, whom he was much lankier than. His wearing the jacket, despite them being indoors, caught Harvey's attention and reminded him in a way he didn't particularly enjoy of why there had been more than Jessica's strong-arming behind his agreeing to lease his spare room to some Freshman. They only turned their heater on when it got to be dead winter and it was absolutely too cold not to, as heating bills piled up fast.

Harvey had to admit that the money they would get from leasing the room would not be an unwelcome change. Still...

"Are you sure you're okay with this, Lach?" he asked, uncharacteristically quiet. They may have needed the money, but there was no way he was letting a stranger live in his house if it made Lachlann uncomfortable in his own home.

"Nah," Lachlann said dismissively, shooting him a quick, half-hearted smile. "It'll be... It'll be interesting. When do we meet him?"

Six days later, Michael Ross was standing on their porch, next to Jessica Pearson, who looked as regal and intimidating as she always did. She gave Mike a pointed look and he stuck out his hand. Harvey shook it warily. Lachlann, wearing an expression so like Harvey's that it left no doubt that they were related.

"Harvey, Lachlann, I want you to meet Mike Ross, your new roommate. Mike, this is Harvey Specter and that is Lachlann. This is their house."

Carefully studying the new Freshman, Harvey noted his expression. It was decidedly displeased with the current situation. Unhappiness and indifference was all he was getting from Mike at the moment, as he recited a stiff, overly formal greeting.

And Harvey decided right then and there that he did _not_ like this kid, and he was going to do whatever he had to in order to, barring ridding his life of this unwanted inconvenience, reduce the impact this... _boy_ had on his life, and his brother's. The last thing he was going to do was let Mike Ross, some genius kid with parents rich enough to send him to a university like Warner Atlantic, disrupt the life he and Lachlann had worked so hard to rebuild.


	3. Chapter 3

**...well. It's. Uh. It's late? Yeah. Definitely that. I'll start getting updates out on Thursday or only one or two days after. These have been pretty sporadic and sketchy lately but so has my life. To give an explanation, for those who wish to have one, here it is: I'm leaving the public school system. We're investigating private schools and online schools and the like, but it's a long and complicated, tiring process. So there you have it. I've been... preoccupied.**

**Plus this chapter just refused to write itself.**

**Anyway yeah, Harvey seems like he's being a bit cruel at the moment, cold or whatever, but give him some time. He'll warm up. :)**

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, please keep it up! I love hearing what you've had to say!**

**Special mention to Lizzie, my partner in the creation of this AU.**

* * *

Jessica's departure marked the fall of an incredibly uncomfortable silence. Harvey had experienced a fair number of uncomfortable silences in his life, but this one took the cake by far. The boy standing on their porch was about average height for his sixteen years, with dark blond spiky hair and unreadable blue eyes. Right from the start, Harvey decided that he wasn't to be trusted.

Mike, as Jessica had introduced him, shuffled a bit, scuffing the ground with the toe of one worn shoe. Harvey merely kept on staring at him, making the kid look nervous and very much like he wished the a hole would open up in the ground and swallow him. Taking pity on him, Lachlann stepped forward and grabbed one of his two bags, a duffle which seemed not all the way full, given it didn't feel too heavy.

"Come on in," he said over his shoulder. "Unless you two want to stand outside all night."

The atmosphere inside the house was much the same as outside of it. Harvey kept his wary eyes on Mike as he surveyed their living room. Lachlann touched the kid's arm and gestured to the stairs. The bedrooms and their shared bathroom were on the second floor, while the living room and the combined kitchen/dining room were on the first floor along with the laundry room (which was honestly more of a closet) and a second bathroom. It was small but it was home, and Harvey was quietly proud of it.

After Lachlann and Mike had deposited the few things Mike had brought with him in the room at the far end of the upstairs hall, the one which used to be their spare room, Harvey called everyone into the kitchen. The uneasy, nervous expression on Mike's face was a sharp contrast to Lachlann, who mostly looked bored.

"Can we get this over with, please. I have school starting next week and I'd like to make use of what free time I have left," the high schooler said, folding his arms and raising an eyebrow at his brother. The look said 'for God's sake, Harv, don't scare him too bad'. Since Mike's actual arrival, Lachlann seemed to have warmed up to the idea of his being there.

Lachlann was a generally kind, warm person, a trait Harvey looked on with pride. And one he, admittedly, didn't seem to share. He often mused that, in many ways, Lachlann was better than he was. Harvey hoped it would stay that way.

In his experience, life had a way of knocking the goodness out of you.

"Harvey," Lachlann prompted, and he snapped out of it. the longer he stood there and said nothing, the more anxious Mike seemed to be becoming.

"Okay," Harvey said evenly. "This is how this is going to work. Lachlann can't cook and I'm assuming you can't either, therefore anything not in the microwave you will leave to me. It'd be best if we could keep both the house and you in one piece, so I'll be sure to be back in time to make dinner. No parties. This isn't a frat house. Other than that, just behave yourself."

Harvey felt a bit silly, honestly, lecturing him like that. It wasn't like he was adopting the kid or anything, Mike was a student in a makeshift dorm room. The agreement Jessica had drawn up regarding rent included providing food for their lodger though, and he wasn't sure he wanted some boy he didn't know operating a fire producing piece of household electrical equipment in his kitchen. Lachlann sucked at making everything save select breakfast foods, so it wasn't like he was unused to cooking on a regular basis.

After he sent the boys up to their rooms (though he refused to think of the room at the end of the hall as 'Mike's room') and to bed, the Specter-house-plus-guest was quiet. Harvey sat at the kitchen table, staring at the grain of the wood. He felt... tired. It had been a long day, and a major change had just been implemented in his life with very little actual input on his part.

Though this was far from the first time Jessica Pearson (and, more passively, her sister, Sarah Pearson) had made a shift to the course of Harvey's world, first in noticing him, a tired twenty one year old college drop out turned exhausted twenty three year old barista in the Cocoa Bean Coffee House. Then came the scholarship, and the agreement which promised him (and swore him to) a place at Pearson Hardman law firm.

Jessica had seen the potential in him, and the drive to get out of his current place in life. But she had also seen Harvey's devotion, his loyalty to his own. She saw the brother that met him some mornings before school, AP level books in his arms, watched him smile past his weariness to the boy he was doing all of this for.

She'd known what he was worth, that he would make a brilliant lawyer, and after a while, Jessica had put a phone call to Sarah. A couple months later and he was able to put three solid meals on the table for his little brother while still feeding himself, with the understanding that the firm would put him through his senior year of undergrad and his years of law school and in return he would make it worth the Pearson sisters' while. Jessica's school would look good if one of the top lawyers in New York came from her campus. It would make a great story, top notch pre-law program's dean of student affairs finds brilliant lawyer in Cocoa Bean Coffee House. And, of course, with any luck, the benefits for Sarah would far outshine the cost of putting him through school.

This move, though, sending this _child_ to live with them..._  
_

So far, everything Jessica had done had turned out well for him. But Harvey wasn't entirely sure how Michael Ross fit in with their Plan. He could very well be a hinderance. Mike could mess this whole thing up for him. Harvey sighed and glanced at the clock, rolling his shoulders and heading for his room.

It was going to be a long year.


	4. Chapter 4

**One day I swear I will actually post an update on a Thursday. Get myself into the habit of legit posting on Thursdays. **

**Sorry there haven't been many lately, and the timing's been weird and staggered and weirdly staggered but it will even out into a regular pattern. Eventually. Also sorry they've been a little bit shorter than my usual chapters.**

**The good news is that now that I've been withdrawn from public school and we have me enrolled in online school (A+ 10/10 would recommend) so all my ducks are now in a row plus I have a lot more time on my hands therefore regular updates should be a thing.**

**I hope you guys will continue to tell me what you think of the story! Believe me there's a place this is going. Bear with all the setup and stuff. Soon we'll see more characters and a -gasp- A PLOT!**

**Thanks for reading friends, and don't forget to send me a review!**

**- Alison**

* * *

Mike slept a fitful, restless night in the spare room, unable to get comfortable and waking up frequently. Time after time he found himself laying on his back, staring at the green, illuminated numbers of the digital clock on the dresser. He watched the numbers flick past, the moon rising and falling in the sky. His first day of classes began the next morning, and Mike _knew_ that he should be sleeping. But it was simply not an unattainable goal.

Not in this strange house with these strange, almost hostile people.

Of course, Harvey slept just fine. He wasn't about to show up to his first day of his senior year sleep deprived just because of some kid. He was up at seven, just like he was every day, with a pot of coffee brewing on the counter, and his bag ready and set on a chair. Lachlann was down a few minutes later, in a worn, faded, oversized Warner Atlantic t-shirt that had previously belonged to Harvey and a pair of flannel pants. He was of the mind that there was no reason anybody should be out of their pajamas until at least eight if they didn't need to leave the house.

Harvey, while silently amused at his brother's childish fondness for Sunday morning cartoons and sugary cereals and staying in his pajamas all day, didn't buy into the mindset himself, and was already dressed smartly in what admittedly a second hand store suit, but it was still nice, and he prided himself on the way he dressed. It was something Jessica had told him to do when she first arranged this whole thing. Dress like a professional and they will treat you like a professional. If you look the part, they will believe that you belong. He could still hear her voice echoing in his mind when he looked in the mirror and fixed his tie.

Harvey poured coffee into a pair of mugs and handed one to his brother, starting a burner and cracking eggs in the pan. What with the normalcy and mediocrity of their usual morning routine, they almost forgot about their new house guest. That is, until they heard a crash from the living room and rushed int o find Mike Ross, flat on his back on the carpet at the foot of the staircase.

"Morning," Lachlann said mildly. Mike, flushed with embarrassment, gave him a small smile. Of the two Specter brothers he would be living with for the foreseeable future, Lachlann seemed much more receptive to his presence in their house. He clung to this more welcoming demeanor desperately. He didn't think he could have made it through this year if both of the Specters hated him. Lachlann may have at least seemed to have made his peace with Mike's arrival, but Harvey...

To be perfectly honest, Mike was both a bit in awe of and frightened by Harvey Specter. The worst part was that he didn't know what he had done to make the man so angry with him.

Carefully avoiding Harvey's gaze, Mike accepted the offered hand up from Lachlann and dusted himself off.

The older college student felt an unexpected pang of sympathy for the boy. That fall had to have hurt quite a bit. Harvey shook the thought from his head. It was Mike's own fault for not watching where he was going.

The three of them stood awkwardly around the foot of the staircase until Harvey was no longer able to stand the tension. He stepped aside and gestured to the kitchen.

"There's coffee in the pot, eggs are on the stove. Help yourself."

Mike, seizing the opportunity to escape the situation, skirted around Harvey and disappeared into the kitchen. The moment he was out of the room, Lachlann smacked his older brother hard on the upper arm. Harvey sent him a wounded look, but the boy just glared.

"What?" Harvey asked, raising his eyebrows at him.

"It wouldn't kill you to be a little bit nice to him, Harv."

"Why?"

Lachlann folded his arms and regarded him with cool eyes.

"Because I know if it was me alone in a new house with people I didn't know, on the word of an odd sort of guardian angel, you would kill someone for treating me like that."

For a few moments both of them met each other's eyes, and Harvey knew that the kid was right. Finally, he broke eye contact.

"I didn't ask for him to be here."

"I know you didn't. But that doesn't change the fact that he is here and it's gonna really suck for all of us if you're this hostile all year."

Harvey didn't respond, but Lachlann knew he got the idea.

On the other side of the kitchen doorway, out of sight of the living room where the Specter brothers had been having their conversation, Mike Ross leant against the wall, staring at the plate he held in his hands. Suddenly, he didn't feel so hungry any more. He put the plate down on the table and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, dialing one of four contacts in it. It rung twice and was answered by a male voice that sounded like the owner had just woken up.

"Hey, Trevor," he said quietly. "Can I get a ride to my first class? I think that's one we have together, right?"


	5. Chapter 5

**...so basically I suck. I am making an effort to actually post on Thursdays but apparently effort isn't getting me very far. In my defense, I'm still behind on schoolwork.**

**On the bright side, the plot is finally actually happening!**

**As a note: I never really caught whether or not they told us what Trevor's last name was. I just sort of made one up.**

* * *

Muttering a brief goodbye to Harvey and Lachlann as he ran out the door, Mike had never in his life felt more glad to no longer be in a house. Trevor Whitby, with all the arrogant cockiness of an eighteen year old rich boy on top of the world, lounged in the driver's seat of the car idling in front of the house. He raised an eyebrow as Mike jumped into the passenger side seat, his head thumping into the headrest with a loud sigh.

"How'd it go?" Trevor asked. His voice was smooth and confident, like everythign else about him. "What's he like?"

"Well it's two 'he's technically." Catching Trevor's look, Mike rolled his eyes. "His brother lives with him. Lachlann. He's younger than me. The older one, Harvey, he's a Senior. He _hates_ me. I don't even know why."

"Sounds like an asshole," the older boy said.

Trevor Whitby was two years older than Mike and about three inches taller. His high school career was a series of detentions, suspensions, and write ups. Trevor's history spelled out insubordination and flippant recklessness. He'd only managed to get into Warner Atlantic thanks to his parents' deep pockets. If it weren't for the fact that the Ross and Whitby families had been friends for years before either of them were born, they probably would never have met. And even if they had, they most definitely never would have been friends.

But as the situation stood, not only had the two of them been friends since pretty much forever, Trevor was basically Mike's only friend. Mike preferred not to think about what that had to say about him.

For the rest of the ride to Warner Atlantic's lecture hall D, he sat silently and listened to Trevor's ceaseless chatter, trying to forget all about Harvey Specter. Unfortunately, he wasn't a person who was easily forgotten, and the memory of Mike's first uneasy night in his new _home_ lingered in his head all morning.

College turned out to be a pretty good fit. Mike enjoyed his classes that day, the rush of being busy and engaged for an entire day a new feeling. Not a bad feeling either, as pretty much anything was preferable to where he had been before, trapped in a high school classroom which had nothing more to offer him. He still grasped the material gone over much faster than his classmates, and took no notes, but it was _new_ material. Things he hadn't known before.

By the time lunch rolled around Mike had managed to put the lingering thoughts of the dark, navy blue house on Renly Lane out of his mind. Trevor and he met up with Trevor's girlfriend Jenny, a political science major, at the school's food court. The pretty blonde girl smiled at him and asked how his classes were going, and needled Trevor about still having his major down as 'undecided', and generally thoroughly distracted both of them from what was on their minds. Eventually, however, the topic of Mike's new living arrangements did come up.

"Mikey here's living with some law major Senior, Henry something."

"That's right," Jenny said brightly, turning to Mike. "You told us about that. How's it working out? Is Henry nice? Do you like him?"

"Well, his name is Harvey, and he's an ass. His brother though, high school kid who lives with him for some reason or another, he's alright." Mike frowned unhappily, not enjoying this line of discussion in the slightest. He was already painfully aware of the fact that as soon as his afternoon class was over he would be forced to return to Renly Lane and spend another awkward evening in the Specter home.

"Well that sucks, sorry to hear you don't like him. Maybe as you get to know him he'll get better? I mean, you two _are_ gonna be living together, so you might want to give him another chance."

Mike snorted quietly. The last thing he wanted to do was get to know Harvey. A person who was like that when you first met him could only be worse the more you knew. A saying about books and covers came to mind, but he ignored it. With some people, he thought, you could just tell.

Far too quickly, it was time for him to head to Writing 101. Mike said a quick goodbye to Jenny, who was lost in her own little world with Trevor, holding his hand and murmuring quietly to him. He shook his head and adjusted the strap of his messenger bag, making it to Gunner Hall, room 246 just before the lecture began. Trevor was supposed to be in the class with him, but as the minutes ticked slowly on and there was no sign of him, Mike began to suspect that either he had been misinformed, or Trevor was ditching.

Knowing him like he did, ditching seemed the most likely assumption to prove true. And on his first day. It was seem that Trevor was as flippant and careless with his college classes that he had been with his high school ones. Maybe he'd decided to spend the afternoon with Jenny. With a roll of his eyes, Mike refocused on the professor.

He should have been more worried than he was.

The people Trevor was spending the afternoon with were considerably more inspiring of worry than Jenny, and in the hours that ticked by after lunch, events were set in motion which would in coming weeks disrupt the stability and normalcy which had just begun to form in Mike's life. Trevor stood in a courtyard with a small group of intimidating looking individuals, nervously fidgeting with his coat sleeves. He watched with them as his best friend exited Gunner Hall.

A finger pointed out the skinny, relatively short, blond sixteen year old boy as he made his way across the pavement, leaves swirling around his feet, guided by the wind.

"That the guy you were tellin' us about?"

Trevor swallowed, shaking himself a little and steeling his resolve.

"Yeah. That's him."


End file.
